The new X-Files film, I Want To Believe, is out in the cinemas this weekend and is the first new material from screenwriter Chris Carter, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson since the TV series ended in 2002. David Duchovny talks about the possibility of another X-Files film and getting back into the character of FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder.Is it true you were the driving force behind bringing the series back as a movie?

I don’t know where that idea comes from, I honestly don’t. It’s not that I didn’t want to do it, but I certainly don’t believe I was the driving force. It’s something that Chris (Carter) keeps saying and I’m not sure why. He must have a reason because he never says anything without a reason.

But I think, for me, it was somewhat redemptive just because having left the show after eight years I felt in some way, not that it wasn’t the right decision for me, but that I had left Chris and Gillian (Anderson) a way to carry on without an integral part of the show. I always said, ‘We should be doing this as movies. We’re all burnt out, we’ve done enough of the show.’ It’s natural to transform into a movie franchise, I always thought.

And so for me to be able to be good to my word in that sense and show them that I didn’t abandon them, that I was just getting off the show and I loved the characters and I love them. For me it was a nice personal kind of a journey, so I think maybe that is why Chris is saying I was always the one who said, ‘Let’s do that.’